Prison Overcrowding & Staff Vacancies

Inquiry recommendation

57match

1 - Eliminating enforced cell-sharing as objective

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The elimination of enforced cell-sharing should remain the objective of the Prison Service, and the achievement of this goal should be regarded as a high priority.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

53match

3 - Central funding for single-cell accommodation

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

If the resources currently available to the Prison Service are insufficient to produce a significant decrease in enforced cell-sharing, central government should allocate further funds to the Prison Service to enable more prisoners to be accommodated in cells on their own.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

53match

2 - Review resources towards single cells

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The Prison Service should review whether the resources currently available to it might be better deployed towards achieving this goal, without compromising standards in other areas, and should set a date for realising this objective.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

53match

4 - Placing at-risk prisoners with a cellmate

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The Prison Service should retain its practice of placing prisoners who are at risk of suicide or self-harm, but who are not so vulnerable as to require being on suicide watch at all times or accommodated in a safer cell, in a cell with another prisoner who they can talk to in times of crisis. The practice should...

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

48match

12 - Guidelines on requests to share with named prisoner

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The Prison Service should publish guidelines to assist officers in handling requests by prisoners to share a cell with a particular prisoner. Practical problems should not be treated as an insuperable hurdle preventing an otherwise suitable move of a prisoner from one cell to another.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

44match

65 - Mandatory personal officer schemes

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

It should be mandatory for all establishments to have a personal officer scheme. That includes busy local prisons, although if time for personal officer work is limited, it should be used constructively.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

44match

39 - Missing cell-sharing risk assessment form on arrival

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

If prisoners arrive on a wing without a copy of the cell-sharing risk assessment form, they should be placed in a single cell until the form is found or a new one completed.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

44match

15 - Minimising mixed-status wings

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

Wings holding convicted and unconvicted prisoners together should be kept to a minimum, and should only be used when there is no operational alternative.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

44match

10 - Guideline content: common background and interviews

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The guidelines should proceed on the assumption that the lack of privacy which cell-sharing entails is more likely to be ameliorated if prisoners with a common ethnic and religious background share cells. But that should only be the starting point for the process. All prisoners should be interviewed on their arrival, either in the first night centre or...

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

43match

11 - Senior officer decides cell-share allocations

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

All decisions about who a prisoner should share a cell with should be made, if possible, by a senior officer. If that cannot be done, the decision should be reviewed by a senior officer at an early opportunity. The suitability of the two prisoners to continue to share with each other should be reviewed at regular intervals, with...

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

39match

16 - Review young offenders on adult wings

Zahid Mubarek Inquiry

The Prison Service should review whether the advantages of holding young offenders on the same wing as adult prisoners outweigh the disadvantages, and whether the practice should be extended to other establishments.

Matched on terms: prison

Inquiry recommendation

39match

R2 - HMP Maghaberry lessons learned

Billy Wright Inquiry

Many of the problems of HMP Maze in 1997 arose from the fact that by then it was the sole prison in Northern Ireland holding the most dangerous terrorist prisoners. We are aware that HMP Maghaberry is currently the sole maximum security prison in Northern Ireland. We recommend that the SOSNI and those with recently devolved authority should...

Matched on terms: prison